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Tired of ward routine, Demara took to religion again. Shuttling back & forth across the Maine-New Brunswick border between two religious houses, he met the real Dr. Cyr and won his confidence. "Dr. Hamann" never betrayed himself in his medical shoptalk. At St. Romuald in Quebec, "Dr. Hamann" became "Brother John." But almost at once, he ran away and signed on with the R.C.N. as "Dr. Cyr."
He served in R.C.N. hospitals in Nova Scotia for three months last spring, and became a registered practitioner in Nova Scotia. From there, he went to the Cayuga, war, and fleeting glory.
If Demara had been tried for the illegal practice of medicine, a court psychiatrist might have unraveled the full story of his personality. And all concerned, including his father, might have learned how Demara picked up his skill as a surgeon.
* His exploit gave the U.S. and Canada a perfect record for reciprocal lend-lease in medical imposters. Quebec-born William Renwick MacLeod did his practicing without a license in the U.S., went to jail for it (TIME, Sept. 25, 1950).